Flowers for All Occasions

Sometimes, the ideal place to drink is in the comfort of your own apartment—or it would be, were it not for the dirty dishes, the sick cat, and the alarming thuds from upstairs. Luckily, on the Bushwick-Bed-Stuy border, there’s now Flowers for All Occasions, a homey bar away from home. This former flower shop was retrofitted into a “tavern / café / gallery” by Erik Zajaceskowski and Rachel Nelson, the husband and wife behind Secret Project Robot and Happyfun Hideaway. One recent evening, a lady evading her unbearably overheated living room curled up in a human-size driftwood cubbyhole and nursed a Cali Mucho—rioja and Mexican Coke—amid potted plants, Christmas lights, and old board games. The games had been donated by a dear friend and “hoarder of American-cool vintage stuff,” whose pregnant wife, Nelson said, demanded that he clear room for the imminent baby. The prodigiously bearded artist Gregory (Stovetop) McKighan dispensed Franzia boxed wine, beer, and soju-based cocktails (there’s a church next door, so no liquor) and the kind of snacks you wish you’d bought at Trader Joe’s (hummus bagel, cheddar pretzels) beneath TVs playing “Inland Empire” and the “Cremaster” cycle. Between orders, Stovetop worked on a drawing of a groovy dude—a re-creation of a painting that had been stolen from the bar’s back gallery, a space currently bathed in psychedelic black light. “It’s a weird compliment,” he said. “ ‘I like your art so much, I took it.’ It’s like, Thank you, but fuck you!” Most of the bartenders are artists, with pieces in the exhibit. “It’s a family affair,” Stovetop said, and offered to share his markers. ♦